Plans for Charley’s Crab site change, private park to be replaced

Darrell Hofheinz @PBDN_hofheinz

Monday

Jun 25, 2018 at 12:01 AMJun 25, 2018 at 8:36 PM

Palm Beach-based Frisbie Group has decided it wants to build on speculation four luxury townhouses — instead of the five the company floated initially — on the oceanfront site that for years was home to Charley’s Crab restaurant.

Still in the discussion stages, the revised plan accommodates more open space on the site, according to the Frisbie Group. But the proposal also eliminates a cozy privately owned park — with its central statue of two white dolphins — on the property at Hammon Avenue and South Ocean Boulevard. For 32 years, the Sylvia & Harold Kaplan Park has offered visitors views of the ocean and seats on a pair of curved benches set amid landscaping.

A rendering shows the four-townhouse project that Frisbie Group wants to develop on speculation at the former Charley’s Crab site at 456 S. Ocean Blvd., as viewed from above Midtown Beach in Palm Beach. The side yard of the townhouse at the far right would replace a private park that has stood on the site since 1986. Rendering courtesy of Frisbie Group

Instead, the 70-foot-wide park area would become a side yard for one of the townhouses.

In April, the Frisbie Group paid a recorded $26.3 million for the 1.2-acre property at 456 S. Ocean Blvd., which included an adjacent vacant lot on Gulfstream Road. The restaurant’s last day was April 1, and the sale of the property was recorded a several days later.

RELATED: Frisbie Group pays $26 million for Charley’s Crab site

The old restaurant building, parking lot and Kaplan Park face 280 feet of oceanfront at the south end of Midtown Beach’s so-called Condominium Row. The property stretches between Gulfstream Road and Hammon Avenue.

Frisbie Group in early April paid a recorded $26.3 million for the former Charley’s Crab restaurant at 456 S. Ocean Blvd. The real estate investment company is planning to build four townhosues on the oceanfront site. (Lannis Waters / Daily News)

Zoning regulations would accommodate five attached townhouses at the site, as long as the total structure stretched no more than 150 feet in width. When the development team met with neighbors about the five-townhouse plan, the residents wanted more "open green space" and "view corridors" on the site, according to an email submitted to the town May 31 by David Frisbie, a principal with his family’s real estate investment company.

So the plan changed.

"We believe it is in the best interest of the town, our neighbors and our future homeowners if we reduce the density to only four townhouses," Frisbie wrote.

RELATED: Developer reveals plans for Charley’s Crab site

Architect Roger Janssen eliminated the central townhouse and replaced it with side yards and lap pools for two units. A key element in the plan is a central pergola that would connect the two townhouses on the south with the two townhouses on the north. That design would meet a code provision that mandates all the townhomes be attached to one another, said Paul Castro, the town’s acting zoning administrator.

An early rendering of Frisbie Group’s townhouse project for 456 S. Ocean Blvd. shows the east side of the development. The project is still in the discussion stages, but could be presented in July for review by the Architectural Commission. Rendering courtesy of Frisbie Group

But the revised plan also widened the development so that it would exceed the 150-foot-maximum. That’s why Frisbie Group is requesting the Town Council grant it a code variance for the project.

The Frisbie Group "worked diligently over the past several months with Paul Castro to envision a variance-free concept," Frisbie wrote. But, he added, the "open green space designed into our concept results in an unavoidable variance" request.

The Architectural Commission is expected to review the plan and a request to demolish the old restaurant on July 25. At that meeting, it could consider endorsing the variance proposal, which would have to win final approval from the Town Council.

As planned, each townhouse would have five bedrooms, about 6,000 total square feet and windows on three sides.

Responding to an emailed question from the Daily News, Katie Frisbie Crowell, project manager for the site, said the northern part of the property — which today houses Kaplan Park — was particularly of concern to neighbors, who "preferred more open space on the north end of the property and to preserve their ocean views," she wrote.

In the revised drawings, the walled-in yard and pool for the northernmost townhouse is about the same size as Kaplan Park.

RELATED: Two generations of Frisbie family shaping real estate in Palm Beach

Losing the park

The park was dedicated in 1986 when the Charley’s Crab property was owned by Harold Kaplan, who died in 1990, about 12 years before the death of his wife, Sylvia. The couple was well-known in Palm Beach County for their philanthropy. An ownership company controlled by their grandsons sold the site and the park area to the Frisbie Group.

Among his business interests, Harold Kaplan was a major shareholder when the late Chuck Muer founded Charley’s Crab, which was later sold to the Landry’s restaurant chain. The two men’s business relationship also included their namesake restaurant, Chuck & Harold’s, which for years anchored the east end of Royal Poinciana Way.

RELATED: Philanthropist Harold Kaplan is dead at 93

Although Kaplan created the park, he continued to pay property taxes on the land and retained the rights to sell it with the rest of his property. Signs on the park benches still say the park is "owned and maintained by the Kaplan family and Charley’s Crab."

Sylvia and Harold Kaplan Park off A1A, next to the former Charley’s Crab restaurant on Palm Beach on June 20, 2018. (Richard Graulich / Daily News)

Deputy Town Manager Jay Boodheshwar confirmed that the town has no official or legal stake in the park, because it is privately owned.

A zoning ‘mistake’

Boodheshwar likened the park to other privately owned but open-to-the-public parks in town. Those include two owned by the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach — Earl E. T. Smith Park, just west of Town Hall, and Pan’s Garden, which is adjacent to the foundation’s building on Peruvian Avenue.

But unlike those parks, Kaplan Park is specifically zoned for recreational use, even though the property lies in an area zoned residential. Town staff made that clerical "mistake," Castro said, when the officials made sweeping changes to Palm Beach’s master zoning plan in the late 1980s.

Because the Frisbie Group wouldn’t be able to develop its project as proposed without the land-use change, the project is expected on July 17 to go before the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission. The board could recommend to the Town Council that the recreational designation be corrected to residential, Castro said, adding that his department is endorsing the change.

Even without a final land-use decision, the Architectural Commission could still consider the overall project in July, Castro added, by stipulating that any votes related to it would be conditional on the town changing the zoning designation.

Neighbor’s concerns met

Although the park isn’t part of the Frisbie Group’s plan, the north townhouse’s pool yard would still accommodate ocean views for the Winthrop House, David Frisbie wrote in his email to the town. The project, he wrote, also won’t impede views for an adjacent six-unit apartment building at 106 Hammon Ave., just west of the site park area.

A townhouse development is planned for the site of the old Charley’s Crab restaurant, seen at the lower left of this photo of Midtown Palm Beach’s so-called "Condominium Row" on South Ocean Boulevard.

Brian Lee, courtesy of WoollyMammothPhoto.com

The planned elimination of the park initially dismayed at least one neighbor. In late April, the town received a letter from Hildegard Jones, who lives at the seven-story Winthrop House condominium across Hammon Avenue from the park.

"I am concerned about the development of the Charley’s Crab property, which would include the removal of the park and I would hope for a plan to save the park," Jones wrote. "My late husband, David Lloyd Jones, was awarded the beautification award from the (Palm Beach Civic Association) some years ago for (helping maintain) the park. We have consistently enjoyed visiting the little park and the pretty dolphin sculpture by Peter Johnson."

But Jones said Friday that she had met with representatives of the Frisbie Group, who listened to her concerns about preserving ocean views from her apartment on the building’s southeast corner. They also offered to give her the sculpture, which she declined because she has no use for it.

"They scaled (the project) back and made (the park into) a yard, which is fine. It was a good solution ," Jones said. "They were very accommodating."

Katie Frisbie Crowell said her company believes the existing fiberglass dolphin sculpture is a replica of the original bronze one installed at the park. "If the original, (high-)quality sculpture were available, we would have been happy to display it elsewhere or donate to the appropriate party," Crowell said.

In addition to the townhhouses, Frisbie Group wants to develop on speculation a five-bedroom, single-family house — with about 6,000 total square feet — on the adjacent lot at 106 Gulfstream Road. That project is expected to be ready for review by the Architectural Commission in August, David Frisbie said.